October 17, 2009

I was rather appalled at this work of art, and not because of the message or the sculptural idea of combining breasts and a trophy. I was appalled because it looked so bad, like an after-hours ceramics class project that made everyone laugh — who was it handed to? — before it was thrown in the trash. But it's in the Smithsonian:

That sagging female breasts can be called a trophy contradicts the idea of commemorative trophies. Robert Arneson's observation of human behavior and American cultural mores—that men and women have an obsession with female breasts—inspired this trophy and its pithy social comment. The artist also brings to our attention the discomforting truth that women are often turned into objects. The most evident example of this cultural phenomenon is the phrase "trophy wife." The title Breast Trophy transforms the piece into a witty visual pun.

Uh, thanks United States government for telling me this thing that I can perfectly well look at is "witty" and "pithy." Did our tax money buy that thing?

I was appalled because it looked so bad, like an after-hours ceramics class project that made everyone laugh — who was it handed to? — before it was thrown in the trash.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff like that in the Hirschorn, the Smithsonian's main modern art museum on the National Mall. A lot of the sculpture looks kind of crude and cheap, like the artist lacked the technical skill to carry his/her plan out. The quality:dross ratio at the Hirschorn is worse, I think, than at any of the other art museums in DC -- even the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum, which has a lot of crap mixed in (but which has a fun collection, and often fun exhibitions too).

Obviously I can't be certain, but probably not, you'll be relieved to know. The Smithsonian likes to get somebody to donate things for free. (On the other hand, the person who does the donating gets a tax writeoff, so in the sense that the national debt went up a tick because of the lost tax revenue, perhaps the answer is affirmative after all.)

We keep our monuments and trophies in DC, but the country is run from NYC...or has it changed to Chicago. The Smithsonian is about American culture and that is a big subject covering the past 200 years. They have now opened an exhibit on the Snowboard's invention by a Michigan man, then living in Steamboat Springs Co, named Sherman Poppen. That is a Dutch name. This big country has a great history of inventions by Mid-Westerners.

One of my favorite objects is an ugly vase like that. It's not witty or pithy or anything artistic like this one, it's just ugly. Really ugly. It's so ugly it makes me love it. It frightens children. Once I took it to a neighborhood florist for them to do whatever they would with an arrangement then picked it up a week later. The shopkeeper told me they never got so many remarks about a vase. People either loved it or hated it. It would probably be good for Halloween candy.

I note that the sculptor was also a professor at a state university -- UC Davis in his case, a pleasant college/country town, near the seat of state government.

After art school, Arneson got an MFA from a women's college, so presumably he received a wide exposure to breasts.

As far as I can tell, our federal tax dollar goes to pay salaries and expenses, as well as buildings and their maintenance, not to buying objects, many of which are donated. Many SI employees are paid by the Trust, not by the taxpayer.

I was made curious to note a list of perhaps two dozen sources of funds for a Mies Barcelona chair, inclusing the SICAP.

As for the suggestion that it was donated, the linked & copied text says "Museum purchase made possible by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program." The only question is where the money for the program comes from. I assume it's tax money.

I have known a few wealthy collectors of Art from the latest artists popular in the 1980s or 1990s. When the collectors needed to move and downsize their space, there were no buyers for the art works anymore in hard times. If they had paid $20,000 and had a $80,000 appraisal all was bragging rights and comforting until the market disappeared. Now their only way to deal with the need to unload it when moving to a smaller place was to find a City Building, Park, Hospital, College, etc. that would take it as a donation and give a 501C(3) donation reciept for a tax deduction. I suspect that is why so much art seems to be suddenly appearing to be "purchased" by the local governments lately.

I'm certain the artist is very fine, because as noted upthread, he was a tenured professor of Art in the UC system, and it's not possible that they would have deadwood in their Art studios. So certainly his work needs to be collected and displayed in the Smithsonian. It's just that special.

Penny...inner resource and persistence are good portents, and Lem seems to have some of both.

I can imagine him getting Crack to laugh again, presenting him with thoughts so odd or on-target he'll never know what to expect, or at the very least I could see him providing just the right music for the moment. Music is good for the hard to reach places, and Lem could be a storehouse of healing in that regard, as long as he steered clear of the new age stuff!